Welcome to Big Old Goofy World . . . a place where I can share my thoughts, hopes, and dreams about this rock that we live on and call home.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

“The Argument of Giftedness”

“For we
were all baptized by one Spirit into one body

—whether
Jews or Greeks, slave or free—

and we
were all given one Spirit to drink.”

(I Corinthians 12:13,
NIV)

What does it take to be a people of faith?One biblical commentator, Valerie
Nicolet-Anderson, stated, “The more I read the letters to the Corinthians, the
more I appreciate the courage and boldness of this community as they wrestled
with what it meant to be people of faith.”Apparently it took a lot in the beginning of the movement of Christian
faith, and it still takes a lot today as it was a bold new relationship with
God and others that blew apart all of the mores of the times then and now.Faith is a challenging and tough task when it
comes to living up to the desires of God as exemplified by Jesus.

Thus it is that we are gathered together this
morning to celebrate the birth of the Christian movement . . . or, as some
would say, the birth of the “church”.We
are here to celebrate that day of Pentecost when God bestowed the blessing of
the Spirit upon the people . . . the day in which God placed a blessing upon
the children . . . the day that God raised the bar on what it meant to be a person
of faith.The day that God affirmed all
of creation and stamped it as being good . . . all of us.

Now I do not want to spend a whole bunch of
time going over the actual events that took place at that first Pentecost . . .
the rushing wind, the dancing flames of fire, the ability to understand other
language—the pure ecstasy of it all—because we already know that.I think that what is more important is that
this coronation was bestowed upon everyone . . . that God intended that this be
for everyone.Again, as you recall the
story you will remember that there were people from all over the world gathered
. . . people of many different races and colors and languages . . . people of
different economic statuses . . . men, women, free people, slaves.There was no division, no separation on God’s
part of who was and was not invited to the coronation—everyone was
included.Everyone.

Everyone was invited to the party just as
they were.Most of us, in our personal
theologies—our understanding of God, affirm that each of us is a unique and
special creation in the image of God.We
affirm that we are all different and that we all have our own gifts.We are similar in our love for God . . . our
love for others; yet, we are all unique and different in what we bring to the
party.Just as it was at that first
Pentecost, so it is today.

That is not so easy to accept.It was not easy to accept then, nor is it
easy to accept today.Oh, we pay a lot
of lip service to the idea of accepting everyone for whoever he or she is, but
we are not very good at putting it into practice.And, the reason why is simple enough . . . we
want everyone to be exactly alike.We
want uniformity . . . we want conformity.Uniformity and conformity cannot happen if everyone does his or her own
thing . . . no, that is chaos—or what we think is chaos.Thus it is that the biblical commentator I
quoted earlier appreciated the courage and boldness of those early followers of
Jesus to wrestle with what it meant to be a people of faith.

Our reading this morning speaks of the
variety of gifts that the Spirit exposes in the faithful . . . and, there are a
variety of gifts.It almost seems that
with each individual there is a unique gifts—the writer basically rattles off
the most common ones while acknowledging that there are as many gifts as there
are stars in the heavens.Plus, the
writer affirms that each and every gift—no matter how big or small—is necessary
. . . necessary to the body of Christ . . . necessary for the church.Together they represent the presence of Jesus
in the world.And, it takes each and
every one of these individuals and gifts.

But we are human in nature.As humans we have a tendency to divide,
separate, and assign value to people, places, and things in our lives.With that ability we rank things as to their
importance to us as individuals and as a society.Those with the most value are the things that
we prize the most, use the most, and ultimately think that everyone else should
too.Those that fall way down the list
towards the bottom of value . . . well, let us just say that those experience a
whole different world.They are
forgotten or ignored, and if they cannot be forgotten or ignored they are
ridiculed, abused, or denied.We all do
it . . . from the cars that we drive to the food that we eat to the people that
we associate with.

Yet, as a society and as a people of faith we
proclaim that all are equal . . . all are valued . . . all are wanted . . .
and, that all are necessary.As I said
earlier, we put a lot of lip service into what we say while the reality is far,
far from what we proclaim.Therein lies
the struggle that the earlier commentator was appreciating in the early
followers of Jesus . . . it is tough living up to this coronation—this
blessing—flung upon us in the form of the Spirit.It brings up that argument of giftedness.

For the past couple of years my role at the
university has been to provide professional development to teachers.Professional development is training in the
many facets of education . . . math, English, reading, technology, special
education, history, Indian Education for All, and even gifted and
talented.There is a lot of areas in
which professional development can be offered, but the two that surprised me
the most were the Indian Education for All and the gifted and talented.The state of Montana—through the laws it has
passed—gives to schools direct and indirect funding to provide education and
educational opportunities in those two areas.Just like there is a lot of funding going into the special education
programs of all the schools in the state.

Now, I can understand the Indian Education
for All . . . we are a state that is smack dab in the middle of the historical
lands of many Native American cultures.These cultures are a big part of who we are as Montanans . . . then and
now.These cultures should be
acknowledge as being just as important and vital as the cultures any of us have
grown up in . . . they are a part of who we are.To ignore this part of who we are as the
children of God is to ignore nearly ten percent of the whole body.It is just sad that it took a constitutional
law to mandate this acknowledgement.

The one that I did not quite understand, at
least when I started my job as a professional development provider for
educators, was the gifted and talented.I wasn’t quite sure why this small group of students was being pulled
out and given special consideration and funding.I mean, come on, these are the smart kids . .
. the kids that zip through the curriculum and get all the exceptional grades
and academic awards . . . the kids who get all the scholarships.I thought that this was a waste of time and
money to provide special programs and methods of teaching to a select group of
students.Wouldn’t this funding be
better spent in another area like special education?These kids are already ahead of everyone
else.

But, that sort of thinking is human nature at
work.It is pushing for uniformity and
conformity . . . a “one size fits all” mentality.This sort of thinking does not take into consideration
the uniqueness of these individuals and the gifts that they bring to the
party.This sort of thinking does not
affirm the contribution that these individuals bring to the party.This sort of thinking does not acknowledge
them as a part of the body of Christ . . . acknowledge them as being a part of
who we are.

Man, was I wrong.Terribly wrong.

The writer this morning is telling us that we
can never be the body of Jesus in the world if we cannot learn how to embrace
the uniqueness and differences in one another that are truly gifts that we have
been blessed with by God.The writer is
telling us that we are “one body” when we are put together
. . . telling us that it does not matter who we are—rich, poor, black or white,
educated or uneducated, male or female, we are one together and nothing apart
in the eyes and heart of God.When it
comes to giftedness in the eyes and heart of God there is no argument . . . it
takes us all to be what God desires.

The hymn echoes . . . we are one in the
Spirit, we are one in the Lord.Someone
once said, “Unity, not unvarying uniformity, is the law of God in the world of
grace . . .”

What does it take to be a people of
faith?Unity in love . . . which is
hard, hard work.I appreciate that we
continue to work on it each and every day.Amen.

(Every so often I have a sermon that I really like that I feel an urge to throw out into the wider world . . . this is one such sermon. I hope it touches someone's life.)